Rating: 
Summary: it's no "Deus Machine"
Review: I picked up "The Deus Machine" in a closing sale at a local bookstore for under 2 bucks, and I couldn't have been more surprised with my find. Limiting my readings to hard science books, I never really got a taste for novels. Ouelette's first work introduced me to the world of the great hard science FICTION novel- and I was floored.High off the buzz from "Deus," I picked up "The Third Pandemic" expecting much of the same. I was disappointed. Ouelette never really gives the characters any real life of their own. The cop with a past, the business man with godlike power, etc. are all present in the book- but they never transcend their potypical limitations. Ouelette seems more content to describe the lives of microscopic bacteria in flowery prose than the lives of real people. By the fifth time reading a personified description of "tribes," "armies," and "expeditionary forces" of bacteria, i found myself wondering why the people were getting the short end of the stick. While the book is truly scary in the sense that this can actually happen, it lacks the special attention to the human condition that would transform it into a novel. As it stands, its a nice book about some stuff you and i will never see that effects the lives of people we aren't sure we care about.
Rating: 
Summary: This work is real history in the making!!
Review: No doubt about it. The emergence of new, nasty viruses; the increasing resistance to bacterial infections; the yearly guessing game about the next flu type, and 5+ billion people make this novel's outcome almost a given. Well written, flowing story.
Rating:
Summary: A Fantastic Intense Biological Thriller
Review: Pierre Ouellette is an author to watch. While The Third Pandemic
is not quite as good as his first novel, Deus Machine, I found it to
be as good as anything written by others of similar works. It is especially entertaining when discribing the actions and motivations
of the unseen microbes that are some of the more interesting characters at times. And yet, the main characters display such a
believable human weakness and strength that you truly identify with
their plight. Perhaps the only draw back I found was that the ending was somewhat less satisfying that I had hoped, but is was
none the less a realistic one. All-in-all, a wonderful story that I couldn't put down.
Rating:
Summary: Terrific bio terror thriller
Review: The propagation of an unabated global plague that threatens the extinction of mankind, is the central theme of Pierre Ouellette's outstanding novel "The Third Pandemic". The mutation of the organism causing psittacosis, an avian borne pneumonia type disease threatens the demise of the world in a manner similar to that of Black Death in the Middle Ages.
The decimation of the disease is experienced through the eyes of four well developed characters, two heroes and two villains. Seattle police lieutenant Phil Paris is obsessed with discovering the identity of a mysterious person that he is convinced "poisoned" his wife. While eating at a local restaurant, he observed a strange person exiting from the kitchen. Within a short time his diabetic wife Ginny succumbed to a severe case of Salmonella poisoning which left her in a vegetative coma.
The mysterious person known as Vincent, is a schizophrenic maniac who on numerous instances over the course of years has introduced pathogens into food in other establishments for unknown reasons.
Meanwhile epidemiologist and researcher Dr. Elaine Wilkes of the Webster Foundation, a subsidiary of Uni Corporation, has devised a computer model for the developement of a worldwide plague for which there is no known cure. It is postulated that this bug has a 72 percent probability of appearing within a ten year period. Her model could help Uni formulate an antibiotic cure or vaccine which could potentially net billions.
Unfortunately, due to a series of fantastic circumstances, this lethal plaque actually does break out in Sao Tome, an island 150 miles off the coast of central Africa. Owing to a long incubation period and the unknown nature of the disease, it is spread by both travelers and inhabitants leaving the island. Soon a pandemic threatening to wipe out 60 percent of the world population is unleashed.
The possible cure, which lies within the information contained in Dr. Wilkes' computer disks, becomes the focus of several opportunists. One such person is a ruthless criminal genius Barney Cox, who orchestrates his release from prison by coercing a high ranking Uni official. He is angling toward securing the precious computer disks.
Ouellette using vast knowledge of basic microbiology crafts a very frightening but believeable scenario that is within the realm of possibility. I was very impressed with several passages that detailed mechanisms of bacterial mutation and infection at the cellular level.
Rating: 
Summary: fascinating, at times beautifully written
Review: The Third Pandemic is a novel about the current emergence of antibiotic-resistent bacteria. I've read several books of this genre, and this is certainly one of the best. The book is at times very well written. Noteworthy is that the author employs bizzare kind literary egalitarianism as an interesting literary device: Disease is narated by ALL its participants -- bacteria living in meat, a fly landing on the infected meat and contracting he disease, an infected mouse biting on a person, that person sleeping with someone else and infecting her, etc. This is not Camus' The Plague; If the author had some profound message to share with his readers, he sure didn't develop it here, but it is a nice and interesting novel nevertheless.
Rating:
Summary: fascinating, at times beautifully written
Review: The Third Pandemic is a novel about the current emergence of antibiotic-resistent bacteria. I've read several books of this genre, and this is certainly one of the best. The book is at times very well written. Noteworthy is that the author employs bizzare kind literary egalitarianism as an interesting literary device: Disease is narated by ALL its participants -- bacteria living in meat, a fly landing on the infected meat and contracting he disease, an infected mouse biting on a person, that person sleeping with someone else and infecting her, etc. This is not Camus' The Plague; If the author had some profound message to share with his readers, he sure didn't develop it here, but it is a nice and interesting novel nevertheless.
Rating: 
Summary: This book is about the genesis of a biological apocalypse.
Review: There have been many "plague" books in the past which follow a common framework: First, the nasy germ is introduced through a horrifying example of how it infects
and destroys some hapless victims. Next, the heroes show
up and recognize the true magnitude of the problem. Finally,
they contain the germ in a nick of time. I wrote "The Third
Pandemic" with a very different structure. It follows the microbiological circumstances that allow the germ to come into being in the first place, and then traces the infectious
paths it follows on its way to triggering a plague of the same
magnitude of the black plague in the 1300s. At the same
time, it shows how trends in economics,politics and social
behavior all contribute indirectly to the successful propagation of the disease.
Rating:
Summary: very good
Review: This book was much better then The Blood Artists. There were no slow parts and the way he describes the bacteria is amazing. I am a nurse and I learned something about bacteria.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining and very thought-provoking
Review: This is my favorite science fiction suspense novel. (Yes, even better than the Michael Crichton novels I love so much.) It is well-written and weaves together a number of riveting plot lines. What I loved the most is the chilling possibility -- quite realistic -- of the premise ... that a superbug could spread havoc on humanity. Although this possible future is different from the one proposed in the movie The Matrix, it is equally compelling and thought-provoking. Not only did this book entertain me thoroughly, but it has kept me thinking. Bravo! ....
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining and very thought-provoking
Review: This is my favorite science fiction suspense novel. (Yes, even better than the Michael Crichton novels I love so much.) It is well-written and weaves together a number of riveting plot lines. What I loved the most is the chilling possibility -- quite realistic -- of the premise ... that a superbug could spread havoc on humanity. Although this possible future is different from the one proposed in the movie The Matrix, it is equally compelling and thought-provoking. Not only did this book entertain me thoroughly, but it has kept me thinking. Bravo! ....
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